Sunday, September 2, 2012

Harvard, cheating, and homework policy

There is an
interesting article on Valerie Strauss’ Washington Post education blog about
cheating at Harvard. The article highlights the fact that cheating is
commonplace at Harvard University and that most students have cheated at least
once during their college careers. Let’s look at the roots of cheating.

Why do we go to
school? To learn? To perform? The more we focus on learning, the less likely we
are to have cheating. Who are you cheating but yourself if your goal is to
learn? If I want to become a proficient golfer, improving the lie of my ball
may make me feel better but does not teach me to golf. If I don’t care about
proficiency but have some other reason that I go out on the course (say, I’m a
businessman whose goal is to make a sale, not play golf well), then I might
improve my lie just to keep the game going.

If I think back
to my college education, the one time I recall cheating in a way was on my
fourth semester Spanish final exam. As well as I’ve done in school over the
years, Spanish was a hurdle, not a subject I wanted to learn. I have always
been particularly impaired learning foreign languages and I had to pass that course
to earn my college degree. I was a math major in my undergraduate years. There
was no way I would ever cheat in math. It was where I excelled. I later switched to
psychology, not quite as natural for me to learn, but my goal was still to
acquire skills, not to earn the best grade. Cheating had no place for me.

In the early
years, we actually teach children to cheat by putting them in positions where
the stakes are high. We shame them for not doing well. And even more
importantly, we shame their parents for their lack of measurable success.

Homework adds to
this process in a large way. We put parents in an untenable position sending
home mounds of homework and meting out large consequences for the work that
does not get done. We read advice columns in every paper telling parents not to
do the work for their children. But, what does a parent do when homework is
dominating the house, the assignments don’t make sense, and the parent is
afraid that the child will fail? Eventually, that otherwise moral parent does
some or all of the work for the child.

I don’t know
that we’ll eradicate cheating once and for all, but we can certainly contribute
to a more honest society by keeping the focus on learning, not just test performance.
We can teach people to use good judgment when faced with difficult situations, and
start that at home by supporting parents with reasonable homework rules. We
want parents modeling the use of good judgment, not acting out of desperation
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